Hog raising is good business for small backyard farms

One of the reasons why we chose to live in the farm are the various agibusiness opportunities that are available.

Hog raising is good business for small backyard farms if you have the time and space.

Many government employees, teachers, people with regular jobs have successfully raised hogs in their backyards for additional income which they can use for sending children to school, to buy new appliances or house improvement.

In our own experience, hog raising is good business, but you have to be careful especially at the start. You must consider that this is business and therefore you must count costs. Consider housing (must be reasonably cost and not too expensive), availability of high quality piglets, availability of high quality feeds, and availabity of market.

For experience, try raising a few heads if you are a beginner. My brother Anthony, who is now a lawyer, used to raise 10 heads when he was still a teacher. He was able to go on vacations even on his small salary because he had extra income from his backyard hog raising project.

You may even start with one or two heads if you are not hiring extra labor, but if you intend to hire extra labor, our personal experience taught us we must have a minimum of around 10 heads to cover labor costs and make a decent income.

As a beginner, all you need is a simple housing with roof and cemented floor. Bamboo, cement. steel bars or any suitable material may be used for walling. Have a good source of drinking water and water for cleaning the floors and bathing the pigs. Good and sufficient water should be piped in which need not be expensive. Plastic pails, plastic hose and low-cost waterer will do. The waterer prevents spillage on the floor. Dry floor helps prevent sickness.

Nipa, cogon or coconut fronds make good roofing. Aside from being low-cost, they provide cool environment for the pigs.

High quality piglets are a very big factor to consider. You must know the bloodline of your pigs to make sure that they are of high quality. Choose a reputable farm and ask from your local Agriculture Office for references. In our farm, we have raised piglets from different sources, but the ones which gave us highest profit were the three-way or four-way crosses. At first, we thought their price outrageous (starting at P/2,100 for first ten kilos and 100 for every additional kilo) as compared to P/800-1,200 for ordinary piglets, but results showed the three-way or four-way cross was much, much efficient. For the same amount of feeds (3-4 bags) and time in raising(3 ½ months), they can give as much as two times or three times profit.

High quality feeds are also a factor. There are now many ready-to-use feeds in the market for the different stages of pig production. Be sure that you know your feeds are of good nutritional value. If you have the available ingredients, mixing your own feed formulation may be an option. A word of caution however, for the small and beginning hog raiser, this is not yet advisable as this requires a high degree of experimentation which might not be compatible with your objective of hog raising as a business. In our farm, we are satisfied with the performance of a local brand of feedlines, which are readily available, and give us good profit. Using three way cross, we average 75 kilos in 3 ½ months, even achieving up to 92 kilos.

Market is one factor which will make or break your business. Many hog raisers allow the old system where the buyer will just estimate the weight and make an offer. After raising your pigs for 3 ½ months, don’t you think you deserve the best price? So be sure to know how much your piglets weigh (there are available weighing scales operated by government “oksyon” markets or even local buyers. It is always better to have your pigs weighted and to know the current buying price, so that you will know if you are making a profit or not. Also be sure to scout around for the best price for your produce so you will be able to sell at the best price.

Hog raising is an easy, enjoyable and profitable agribusiness. Why don’t you try it in your backyard farm today?

Old-fashioned Coconut Vinegar: SUKA SA PANGI

One of the many advantages when we live in the farm is that we many times we have a surplus of farm products.
At our small farm, we have 8 coconut trees. Fortunately, one of my farmboys knows how to harvest coconut toddy, locally known as "tuba."
When harvested early, "tuba" becomes a sweet drink with an effect like red wine, but it ferments by itself in two or three days and soon turns into vinegar.
In my younger days, I can remember that vinegar-making from excess tuba is second-nature to our family. My grandmother had this large clay jar to put in all excess tuba which she put away, and a few months later we would have a good supply of tuba. My father was so fascinated with making vinegar which we called suka in the dialect, that he filled hundreds of bottles with tuba. Even after his death, we were still harvesting his vinegar.
An uncle had a big empty bottle of wine refilled with tuba, and months after it always amused us to be getting dipping vinegar from an imported wine bottle which he displayed like prized wine.
Vinegar-making from coconut is very simple. We just place three-day old tuba in glass bottles, place it in a dark corner, forget about it for two or three months. Nature takes care of the rest.
Here at Manong Caloy Farm, some of my neighbors have helped me make a vinegar which we call SUKA SA PANGI. It is old-fashioned vinegar with spices from the foothills of Razorback Mountain Range, and now we even sell it in glass bottles for those who do not have their own tuba or do not have the time to make it. It also gives us some little extra income.
There are indeed a lot of things we can make in a farm!

Backyard Farming at Razorback Mountain

Backyard Farming

Backyard farming is fun ….I started to farm 10 years ago and up to now I enjoy it….from scratch, my husband and I have managed to carve out our small farm, build a small farmhouse, raise our own vegetables, corn, chicken,some turkey, goats and pigs. We have planted some fruit trees and now we are enjoying our harvests of avocado and mango. Our coconut trees have started bearing nuts, and we are also able to get coconut toddy or a local kind of drink (tuba).
It is not an easy task, considering that we were both not exactly farmers, but certainly our experience has shown that we can learn and have fun along the way.
We call our little piece of heaven, Manong Caloy Farm. It is located on the foothills of the Razorback Mountain Range in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental.